TL;DR: heating systems signal with current, not with voltage, AFAICT. Story up top, hard details at the bottom. So, my fuel oil furnace started acting weird, the other day. Or rather, it had been acting weird for a while, but just to the point where you're like, "is it maybe supposed to do that?" It … Continue reading Thermostat wiring and voltages
Transcription: Some Elements (Evan LE NY)
I like SpaceChem (Zachtronics) 's soundtrack - Some Elements in particular is brilliantly exuberant, and I could probably come up with a bunch more flowery words to describe it, but that's not the point. The point is it has a really cool piano bit, and for years I've idly considered learning it, and today I … Continue reading Transcription: Some Elements (Evan LE NY)
Irrecipe: Chicken Goop
Context: https://hqiblog.com/2021/11/05/irreducible-recipes/ and https://hqiblog.com/2021/11/05/erhanniss-kitchen/ Chicken stockToo many rice sticksTexture granules as desired Boil chicken stock with too many rice sticks, and texture granules. The rice sticks absorb almost all the water and it turns into a tasty goo. Discovered on accident, repeated on purpose.
Erhannis’s Kitchen
There are a number of ingredients I stock my kitchen with. They tend to be non-perishable powders, or occasionally non-perishable goops. I sorta like powders in theory because you can get the result more concentrated than if you used hydrated stuff - your gamut is wider. In practice I don't really take advantage of that. … Continue reading Erhannis’s Kitchen
Irreducible Recipes
A lot of recipes have more steps and ingredients than strictly necessary, to optimize for flavor or texture, etc. I'm really impatient, though. If it has more than three ingredients, or three steps, it's pushing the upper limit. I've sorta developed a habit of reducing recipes to their minimum core, shortcutting steps and omitting ingredients … Continue reading Irreducible Recipes
The Screenshot Button
Ugh. Sometimes, the code you're writing sucks, and the library's API sucks, and the language reference sucks, and everything you have to eat in your cupboard sucks. You know what doesn't suck? The Nintendo Switch screenshot button. I'm not sure I've ever seen a new device feature I approve of so wholeheartedly. There's no confusing … Continue reading The Screenshot Button
LibreOffice Reflection
No, I don't know how to do LibreOffice Basic reflection. I'm kinda ticked about it. Spent ages trying to find how to get the area of a selection (y'know, the entirety of what a selection is?), found a ton of splintered documents and couldn't tell whether they were even applicable (and they were largely unhelpful … Continue reading LibreOffice Reflection
OpenSCAD dependency management
Working with OpenSCAD for a few weeks, I quickly wished there was an easy dependency manager. None of the options appealed to me, so I made my own. It could actually be used with most any language, really, and is basically just a script that invokes Git to clone dependencies into a folder in your … Continue reading OpenSCAD dependency management
How to tie your tie the right length
TL;DR near the bottom. So for years, almost every Sunday I'd have to re-tie my tie in order to get it the right length. I tried looking up tricks, and found nothing. The method I use to tie my tie, you fix the length of the short end, and then tie the long end around … Continue reading How to tie your tie the right length
5 Minute Onion
Here's a tip I found on the internet somewhere: you can cook an onion in the microwave in 5 min. No special preparation, though I recommend removing the end bits and the outer papery peel. You can microwave it for less if you want more of a crunch. You can cut it up afterwards, and … Continue reading 5 Minute Onion
Highly Questionable Ideas 